About the Composer

Sometime last year I struck up an email correspondence via this blog with poet/librettist Karren Alenier, whose opera with composer William Banfield Gertrude Stein Invents a Jump Early On was premiered in 2005 in New York by Encompass New Opera Theatre. Karren has written a very entertaining book about what it takes to see an opera project through from concept to production.

As someone with a new opera idea in the pipeline, I’m keenly interested this topic and Karren was kind enough to let me read an advance copy of the book. I’m not a critic, so I’m unable to offer an in-depth review, but I thought I should at least call readers’ attention to it.

The Steiny Road to Operadom: The Making of American Operas uses Karren’s own project as a frame of reference throughout, but she also wisely sought input from other professionals in the field, including the likes of Placido Domingo, Mark Adamo, Libby Larsen and Ned Rorem. Every aspect of making a new opera is discussed: collaboration, finding an audience, finding a commission, working with singers, working with directors, critics and more.

As far as my own project is concerned (it’s a secret), reading this book has given me a good picture of the various ways to pursue it, and what to expect if and when I do. My favorite chapter title: “Hubris, Vanity, Rejection”.

What’s really fun about this book is the structure. Karren’s own opera is a result of many years studying the work of Gertrude Stein, and the book is organized in what might be described as a “cubist” way. In a sense, it’s really two books in one: one is about her own background leading up to the creation of her opera and its production, and the other is a more general look at the world of American opera. But, the two books are presented simultaneously in layers.

Any composer or writer who is not already intimate with the vagaries of the American opera world would surely learn something from this book, but also the tone of the book is light and sharp, and so I imagine it would be enjoyable for anyone who is peripherally interested in the topic. The Steiny Road to Operadom: The Making of American Operas is not yet in stores, but it’s available now from the publisher’s web site.

In advance of the upcoming premiere of his harp concerto, Mark Adamo (seen below in a recent photo, pre-haircut) has written a fascinating description of the challenges involved in writing such a thing, and how he approached it. How do you get beyond the clichés and build something where the harp isn’t just adding some attack to the clarinets or providing noodledy-noodley filigree? How can the harp “own” the material?

Whether or not you have any interest at all in the harp as an intstrument, this is a worthwhile thing to read. It’s a great example of how a smart composer starts a new project by asking questions. Mark’s approach here reminds me of thorough advance work he puts into his stage works. (More on that here.)

1.) Since the harp is, by design, more impressive spelling out harmony than theme—but I want a theme with a real authority on which to organize the piece—can I come up with a melody that’s all harmony and all line at the same time, and yet is still versatile enough to express whatever I need?

2.) Are there unusual technical or timbral resources the harp can muster that are theatrical (read: loud) enough to hold their own in an orchestral texture? Can I design a movement to ask a question to which these timbres would be the answer?

3.) And how do I make this piece not just an orchestra score which happens to have a very large harp part, but a true concerto: one which sounds as if all of its gestures and materials are generated by the soloist? In other words, how do I keep the orchestra, with its limitless melodic potential, from upstaging the harp?

Mark’s Four Angels will receive its premiere at the Kennedy Center on June 7 – 9, 2007 performed by Dotian Levalier and the National Symphony Orchestra, Leonard Slatkin, conductor.

Here’s an early review of Mark Adamo’s Lysistrata which has just opened at New York City Opera.

This is from Steve Smith of Time Out New York:

It was hard to come away from tonight’s premiere without a sense of renewed faith in the possibility that contemporary opera can deal with both the baggage of genre history and the demands of a contemporary audience. Adamo, in only his second big-stage piece, neatly proves that it can be done — and with a show that’s genuinely entertaining, to boot.

Read the rest…

I say “hooray!” to Alex Ross for recognizing Mark Adamo as one of “the best opera composers of the moment”. (I disagree about Adams, but that’s a whole other thing. Ad�s I don’t know from Adam’s off ox.)

Mark is a brilliant guy. If you have the slightest interest in opera or any music for the stage, please read this interview with Mark on NewMusicBox. You’ll see that, not only is he popular and successful, but he actually knows what he’s talking about.

I still think of myself as primarily as a theatrical composer, even when I work on concert pieces. So, I’m pleased that Mark saves me the trouble of saying this, which I’m not smart enough to explain so clearly myself:

Sonata allegro form, if you’re going to put it in 19th-century terms, is a theatrical form. There’s a great overlap between the Aristotelian theory of protagonist, antagonist, conflict, denouement, and principal theme, second theme, exposition, development. So the development of opposites in relation to each other to make points and to sculpt an experience I think is common to both endeavors.

On having to work with parameters when composing for the stage, as opposed to concert works:

There’s a kind of hyper-rhythmic and strutting and exhibitionistic quality to Lysistrata, for example, that there was really no place for in Little Women, and that wasn’t because you couldn’t put it in opera, it was because you couldn’t put it in that opera.

Since Mark writes his own libretti, he was asked the very unfortunate but inevitable question: which comes first. His answer….

The acting. Really knowing how you would play the scene physically in space. The way that I outline it up front, generally it’s sort of a four-part process.

Then there are two fascinating paragraphs where Mark describes his process. I can’t quote all of it, but it’s about a third of the way down the page.

I’ve known Mark for about 20 years, and we’re very much cut from the same cloth. Basically, we both wanted to be Stephen Sondheim when we grew up, and we both ended up following a different path.
        (aside)
OK. I admit it: I still want to be Stephen Sondheim when I grow up. But it doesn’t look like that’s going to happen.
        (a beat)
…and I don’t think I’m going to be Sondheim either. Fnar fnar…. get it?

Anyway, sorry for namedropping. Nu, it’s a blog. I shouldn’t namedrop? Just read the interview.